# Best Series Ever 2006

_Board 8 wiki -- CC BY-SA 3.0. Contest overview plus 31 match writeups, in match order. Converted from MediaWiki to Markdown; navigation, image embeds and footnotes stripped. See ATTRIBUTION.md._


---

## Spring 2006 Contest

_source: Spring 2006 Contest (revid 71353)_

<table>
<caption><strong>Best. Series. Ever</strong></caption>
<thead>
<tr class="header">
<th><p>Announced:</p></th>
<th><p>May 8th, 2006</p></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr class="odd">
<td><p>Started:</p></td>
<td><p>1 July 2006</p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td><p>Ended:</p></td>
<td><p>1 August 2006</p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<td><p>Winner:</p></td>
<td><p>Legend of Zelda</p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td><p>Contest Winner:</p></td>
<td><p>metroid13 - 80 points</p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<td><p>Notable matches:</p></td>
<td><p>Castlevania vs Kingdom Hearts</p>
<p>Sonic vs Super Smash Bros.</p>
<p>Warcraft vs GTA</p>
<p>Zelda vs Final Fantasy</p></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

**Best. Series. Ever**

*This was the Article of the Week for the week of 6/11/06.*

The **Spring 2006 Contest** was a GameFAQs contest called **Best. Series. Ever.** Nominations were opened in early May, having only been announced in a topic on Board 8, and not on the GameFAQs home page. The bracket was released on June 8th, 2006.

Final Fantasy, The Legend of Zelda, Metroid and Super Mario are all tipped to dominate, with an all-but-inevitable victory predicted to go to FF. (lawl)

Popular outsiders garnering support on Board 8 included Monkey Island, Phoenix Wright, Seiken Densetsu, Mega Man Legends and Densetsu no Stafi. None of which made it into the contest.

32 series were included, with the weakest probably being Civilization (which, while popular, is not typically the kind of game associated with GameFAQs posters) or Shadow Hearts (relatively unknown, although popular on parts of GameFAQs)

Prior to nominations appearing, it had been believed that the contest would be cancelled due to the aftermath of the latest redesign. The most popular predictions for possible topics were a second Best. Game. Ever. or a Best. Female. Character. Ever.

## The Bracket

<table border=1 width=100% class=genrebox>
<tr>
<td colspan=4 class=columncolor2>

Hyrule Division

</td>
<td rowspan=10>

The Legend of Zelda Metal Gear

</td>
<td rowspan=20>

The Legend of Zelda Final Fantasy

</td>
<td rowspan=20>

The Legend of Zelda

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

\(1\) The Legend of Zelda (8) Civilization

</td>
<td rowspan=2>

The Legend of Zelda Mega Man X

</td>
<td rowspan=4>

The Legend of Zelda Metroid

</td>
<tr>
<td>

\(4\) Suikoden (5) Mega Man X

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

\(3\) Pokemon (6) Star Ocean

</td>
<td rowspan=2>

Pokemon Metroid

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

\(2\) Metroid (7) Kirby

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan=4 class=columncolor2>

Snake Division

</td>
<tr>
<td>

\(1\) Metal Gear (8) Soul Calibur

</td>
<td rowspan=2>

Metal Gear Fire Emblem

</td>
<td rowspan=4>

Metal Gear Kingdom Hearts

</td>
<tr>
<td>

\(4\) Fire Emblem (5) Silent Hill

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

\(3\) Castlevania (6) Halo

</td>
<td rowspan=2>

Castlevania Kingdom Hearts

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

\(2\) Kingdom Hearts (7) Harvest Moon

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan=4 class=columncolor2>

Mushroom Division

</td>
<td rowspan=10>

Super Mario Bros. Final Fantasy

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

\(1\) Super Mario Bros. (8) Madden NFL

</td>
<td rowspan=2>

Super Mario Bros. Warcraft

</td>
<td rowspan=4>

Super Mario Bros. Super Smash Bros.

</td>
<tr>
<td>

\(4\) Grand Theft Auto (5) Warcraft

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

\(3\) Sonic (6) Devil May Cry

</td>
<td rowspan=2>

Sonic Super Smash Bros.

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

\(2\) Super Smash Bros. (7) Dragon Quest

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan=4 class=columncolor2>

Ultima Division

</td>
<tr>
<td>

\(1\) Final Fantasy (8) Diablo

</td>
<td rowspan=2>

Final Fantasy Mega Man

</td>
<td rowspan=4>

Final Fantasy Resident Evil

</td>
<tr>
<td>

\(4\) Mario Kart (5) Mega Man

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

\(3\) The Elder Scrolls (6) Street Fighter

</td>
<td rowspan=2>

Street Fighter Resident Evil

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

\(2\) Resident Evil (7) Shadow Hearts

</td>
</tr>
</table>

## Results and Analysis

### Ulti's Analysis

On May 8th, people all but gave up on there being a Spring Contest at all. The next announcement from Ceej involving brackets would likely have to do with the summer, but Ceej was never one to be predictable. The announcement did come, but it was for a series contest rather than a character battle.

Around one month later (though it seemed like forever), bracket. One month was by far the longest period ever between nominations and brackets, and you can imagine all the whining that took place. Nevertheless, the stage was set. 32 series, 4 divisions of 8 series each. People complained about a lot of wasted potential and such (and perhaps this would turn out to be true), but contest is better than no contest.

Contest rankings, best to worst:

1.  Summer 2002
2.  Spring 2004
3.  Summer 2003
4.  Summer 2005
5.  Spring 2006
6.  Summer 2004
7.  Spring 2005

July 2006 would be \> Summer 2005 if it were 64 series instead of 32. I enjoyed this contest, especially the influx of votes. It just needed to be longer with more upsets, that's all.

### Ngamer's Analysis

Alot of the time I see the BSE swept aside and dismissed along with the Villains Contest, and I don't think that's too fair. Ok, so there weren't a whole slate of epic matches or great back-and-forth affairs, but at least these were somewhat uninteresting polls between decently-powerful opponents, unlike the utter fodder of Spring '05. I actually like the BSE quite a bit, aside from CJay's fumbling up on bracket placement... when you've got three entrants (Mario/Zelda/FF) so clearly ahead of the field, it's an absolute must that the other quarter be a Division of Death. Leave MGS in there as the one seed, slip Smash Bros. in as an underseeded dark horse, and load the other two positions up with powerhouses of the Sonic and Mega Man variety, and we could have had a Division people would still be talking about today, Div 128-style.

Getting back to the point, the BSE had awesome upsets in CV \> Halo and WC \> GTA, insane vote swings in CV/KH, a strong 50/50 shootout in RE/SFII, SSB surprising everyone by rSFFing Mario itself, and all that on top of the greatest Final match in site history. Now granted I'm a little biased due to all the crap me and other Zelda supporters took for daring to suggest that Final Fantasy wasn't going to blow through the whole field in a cakewalk, but even if the result went against your bracket you had to appreciate what an incredible slugfest that Zelda/FF Championship turned out to be. Not only was the final result within a percentage point, FF actually won every update outright for over 10 hours of that poll with its massive Night Vote. So, yeah, highly underrated Contest overall, though I'm not crazy enough to say it deserves a shot at being considered the best Contest overall or anything like that.

---

## (1)The Legend of Zelda vs (8)Civilization 2006

_source: (1)The Legend of Zelda vs (8)Civilization 2006 (revid 80285)_

## Results

Sunday, July 2nd, 2006

- **Division:** Hyrule Division
- **Match \#:** 01
- **Match Date:** Sunday, July 2nd, 2006
- **Vote difference:** 88,994
- **Oracle Expectations:** The Legend of Zelda - 87.39% 151 for - 0 against
- **GameFAQs Prediction:** The Legend of Zelda - 98.15% (45,343 brackets)

## Ulti's Analysis

"Best. Series. Ever." is the 7th bracket contest on this site. All seven have had a Nintendo representative as the overall \#1 seed, which set up the first match of this thing. Like every other contest before it, BSE's first match was not about who would win --- it was obvious from the start. What mattered was setting the trend for the rest of the contest, and Zelda did this by shattering the old record for individual votes (it was Cloud with 94086 against CATS in 2003 before this contest began). Not only did this set the table for the massive vote totals we would see this contest, but it got all of the Zelda/Final Fantasy arguments going on the very first day despite FF being the overwhelming favorite to win it all. But more on that when the time comes.

Zelda's strength continues to impress every contest, but Civ shouldn't go into the night without some credit. The series has a rather dedicated fanbase (as everyone who remembers MWIS's heyday will attest to) that finally managed to get something into a contest, even if it was a mere "happy to be here" entrant. One may also consider Civ's preventing Zelda from breaking 90% to be a moral victory of sorts, given pre-match expectations.

## Stats and Analysis

The Legend of Zelda vs Civilization was the first match of the Best. Series. Ever. contest, and from day one Zelda raised the bar on the standards. Nobody expected Civilization to win, but Zelda shattered all records by breaking 100,000 votes by itself in the very first match. This set hopes for higher vote totals throughout the contest, as well as starting up the Zelda \> Final Fantasy bandwagon.

## Match Trends

## External Links

- [Match Updates](http://www.gamefaqscontests.com/drupal/node/22?matchnum=2425&num=2)
- [Oracle Match Results](http://oraclechallenge.com/archives.php?contest=SpC2k6&type=match&match=1)

• **No Previous Match**       • **Next Match**

---

## (4)Suikoden vs (5)Mega Man X 2006

_source: (4)Suikoden vs (5)Mega Man X 2006 (revid 88936)_

## Results

Monday, July 3rd, 2006

## Ulti's Analysis

- **Division:** Hyrule Division
- **Match \#:** 02
- **Match Date:** Monday, July 3rd, 2006
- **Vote difference:** 46,252
- **Oracle Expectations:** Mega Man X - 69.56% 156 for - 3 against
- **GameFAQs Prediction:** Mega Man X - 77.84% (35,961 brackets)

Unlike most contests that have a somewhat in-the-air match on the second day (Morrigan \> Spyro in 2002, Fox \> Pikachu in 2003, Metroid \> Pac-Man in Spring 2004, Sigma \> Andross in Spring 2005, and Ness \> CJ in Summer 2005), July 2006's Suikoden/Mega Man X was as predictable as could be pre-contest. Even with the fact that the MMX series is of the spinoff/niche variety, Suikoden's sales and contest history assured that Suikoden the series would not come close to winning this. Luca Blight has been nothing but the purest of fodder, and Suikoden 2's shining moment was a killing at the hands of FF7 two years ago. How Suikoden managed to get seeded higher than half the field is beyond me; was Suikoden V really that good or popular?

Anyway, the only thing most people cared about in this match was the fact that X made his way into a match pic, because for whatever reason Ceej doesn't like having X represent "Mega Man" in character contests, even though he's stated in the past that he counts all varieties of MM nominations as tallies for the Blue Bomber himself.

And there we had it. X, in all of his badass glory. And Zero.

...woohoo. Serious business.

Anyway as for the match itself, it was the prototypical blowout-yet-not-a-record-breaker that most expected. Suikoden was weak, yes, but MMX was just niche enough to not turn this thing into something like an 85-15 drubbing. It was also a rather boring blowout (not like what we saw from Zelda, Mario and FF in their efforts); the percentages were more or less in the same small 3% range all match long.

Unlucky bracket placement for MMX would eventually cause X's stat placement to become irrelevant, given that it's reward for winning this was ZeldaFodder in round two. Easy path, bad stats. Unless you believe that Zelda \> MMX wasn't SFF at all, but that's a different topic for a different day.

## Match Trends

## External Links

- [Match Updates](http://www.gamefaqscontests.com/drupal/node/22?matchnum=2426&num=2)
- [Oracle Match Results](http://oraclechallenge.com/archives.php?contest=SpC2k6&type=match&match=2)

• **Previous Match**       • **Next Match**

---

## (3)Pokémon vs (6)Star Ocean 2006

_source: (3)Pokémon vs (6)Star Ocean 2006 (revid 56331)_

## Results

Tuesday, July 4th, 2006

## Ulti's Analysis

- **Division:** Hyrule Division
- **Match \#:** 03
- **Match Date:** Tuesday, July 4th, 2006
- **Vote difference:** 34,272
- **Oracle Expectations:** Pokemon - 60.25% 153 for - 8 against
- **GameFAQs Prediction:** Pokemon - 83.74% (38,686 brackets)

Pre-contest, this match got very little debate. It was sort of accepted that despite Pokémon's historical anti-vote drawing ability, Star Ocean was too cult for it to matter. A few of Star Ocean's bigger fans debated that it had a chance to win, but it wasn't taken seriously for quite some time.

Then for whatever reason, arguments over this match exploded the day before, mostly out of the boredom borne of Suikoden being on the ass end of yet another beating. There was also a mild fear factor setting in among Poké's supporters, for good reason. Pikachu barely beat *PaRappa the Rapper* in 2002 before getting killed by Cloud. The following year, people had faith that Pikachu could hold his own against Fox (despite the fact that both faced Cloud the previous year, but that's a different issue). He responded by getting destroyed. No Pokémon has seen a character contest since.

In Spring 2004, Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal squared off against Xenogears. GSC couldn't even hold its own during a glitched poll. On the following day when the poll was fixed, the beating at the hands of the "MASSIVELY CULT" Xenogears was realized.

Pokémon's historical ability to tank had some people worried, and it only grew worse when the match picture was first seen. Pikachu, the rat that even most Pokéheads hate due to overexposure, was front and center on Pokémon's side. Surrounding him was a set of loser starter Pokémon. No Mewtwo, no legendaries, no Gardevoir. Just Pikachu and his fellow band of rats.

Flat-out panic set in from Pokémon's side, even from its most devout followers, all the way up to match time. But this would turn into total madness mere seconds after the match began. Not only did Pokémon start out in the lead, it killed Star Ocean from the opening gun. Pokémon flew out to over 90% of the vote early, and though the series would not finish with nearly this high a percentage, it was meaningless to the fans. Vindication for four years of tanking was finally upon them, even if it was a meaningless one point win against a cult series.

Speaking of which, all RPG entities in contests not affiliated with Squaresoft will tank. Didn't the villains contest teach you people anything? Star Ocean, like virtually every other such RPG series, has a very small, loud fanbase. Only Square sees sales numbers and popularity on GameFAQs that causes strength in contests. Even games that you'd think would feature up-and-coming contest stars (Tales of Symphonia and Star Ocean 3 are two great examples of this) have sales figures that proportionally speaking don't come close to how loud the fanbases are when discussing said games. Off the top of my head, I can't even think of the strongest true non-Square RPG character. I say true because Mario doesn't count. KOS-MOS maybe?

After Pokémon's initial percentage surge and collective Pokéorgasm from fans of the series, Pokémon settled down. Throughout the day, it would eventually lose the doubling. A total killing eventually settled into a nice little blowout for Pokémon, and the discussion soon turned into whether or not Pokémon had any chance against Metroid.

Everyone that knows me knows that I despise people calling entire contests after matches have been playing out for mere minutes (the whole "\[..\] is so screwed." fad was born to make fun of this crap, which is why I love it so much), but I will admit to this being a small exception. Metroid \*\*\*\*s up against Nintendo in just about every contest. No matter how cult Star Ocean is, the Pokémon \> Metroid bandwagon would have been widespread to hell and back had Metroid tanked against Kirby. And assume Pokémon actually manages to stay above 80% in this. Granted Metroid put this all to rest seconds after Pokémon's match was over. For one round, at least.

## Match Trends

## External Links

- [Match Updates](http://www.gamefaqscontests.com/drupal/node/22?matchnum=2427&num=2)
- [Oracle Match Results](http://oraclechallenge.com/archives.php?contest=SpC2k6&type=match&match=3)

• **Previous Match**       • **Next Match**

---

## (2)Metroid vs (7)Kirby 2006

_source: (2)Metroid vs (7)Kirby 2006 (revid 88937)_

## Results

Wednesday, July 5th, 2006

## Ulti's Analysis

- **Division:** Hyrule Division
- **Match \#:** 04
- **Match Date:** Wednesday, July 5th, 2006
- **Vote difference:** 43,786
- **Oracle Expectations:** Metroid - 65.02% 159 for - 3 against
- **GameFAQs Prediction:** Metroid - 89.22% (41,218 brackets)

One day after the Pokémon \> Metroid bandwagon formed, it was all put to rest. However, one needs to look into Metroid's past in Nintendo v Nintendo matches to see why that bandwagon began in the first place:

[<https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/1361-north-division-final-link-vs-samus-aran>](https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/1361-north-division-final-link-vs-samus-aran)

[<https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/1312-north-division-round-1-samus-aran-vs-isaac>](https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/1312-north-division-round-1-samus-aran-vs-isaac)

[<https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/1646-division-128-round-2-the-legend-of-zelda-the-wind-waker-vs>](https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/1646-division-128-round-2-the-legend-of-zelda-the-wind-waker-vs)

[<https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/1639-division-16-round-2-the-legend-of-zelda-a-link-to-the-past>](https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/1639-division-16-round-2-the-legend-of-zelda-a-link-to-the-past)

[<https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/1633-division-8-round-2-super-mario-bros-3-vs-metroid>](https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/1633-division-8-round-2-super-mario-bros-3-vs-metroid)

[<https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/2122-tournament-quarterfinal-mario-vs-samus-aran>](https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/2122-tournament-quarterfinal-mario-vs-samus-aran)

[<https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/2115-zebes-division-final-samus-aran-vs-ganondorf>](https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/2115-zebes-division-final-samus-aran-vs-ganondorf)

Samus has never been able to SFF anything. I doubt that she even SFFd Isaac. As for why she can't SFF anything, who in the world knows. One could credit Metroid only being popular in America, but this is an America-based website.

Yet for whatever reason, Samus' series whipped the holy hell out of Kirby's series. Samus started near 68%, and though the percentages stayed even as hell all match, it doesn't take away from how big a match this was for Samus. Most didn't expect her series to do this, and if this is a character match, I doubt Kirby goes below 40%. Either Metroid scored SFF here (for the first time ever in a Nintendo match), or Kirby's games are just that weak and his popularity stems from SSB/M and character design.

As much as I'd like to credit Samus finally breaking through, I think it's the latter more than anything. Why would Samus not SFF anything Nintendo until now? How many people list a Kirby game as one of their favorites? How many Kirby games made it into the Spring 2004 Contest? And for whatever reason the Top 100 Games link goes to recent top ten lists at the moment, so I can't exactly look up how many Kirby games made it.

Regardless, I don't know how much of this was Metroid actually SFFing Kirby, though it did put to rest the Pokémon bandwagons.

## Match Trends

## External Links

- [Match Updates](http://www.gamefaqscontests.com/drupal/node/22?matchnum=2428&num=2)
- [Oracle Match Results](http://oraclechallenge.com/archives.php?contest=SpC2k6&type=match&match=4)

• **Previous Match**       • **Next Match**

---

## (1)Metal Gear vs (8)SoulCalibur 2006

_source: (1)Metal Gear vs (8)Soul Calibur 2006 (revid 64090)_

## Results

Thursday, July 6th, 2006

## Ulti's Analysis

- **Division:** Snake Division
- **Match \#:** 05
- **Match Date:** Thursday, July 6th, 2006
- **Vote difference:** 44,140
- **Oracle Expectations:** Metal Gear - 70.54% 158 for - 2 against
- **GameFAQs Prediction:** Metal Gear - 88.25% (40,770 brackets)

PSYCHO MANTIS PSYCHO MANTIS PSYCHO MANTIS woo woo woo! </mark out>

Ahem.

Anyway, I'll never get why "Metal Gear" made it into this field instead of Metal Gear Solid. Superfluous difference I realize, but still an odd one.

Regardless, this was a fun little 1-8 match solely because of SoulCalibur's Spring 2004 Contest standing in the (lol) X-Stats. Check out the stats and see for yourself where SoulCalibur is in relation to the two Metal Gear Solid games that made that same field.

No one with sense actually took said standing seriously enough to take this upset in this match, but going solely by stats this was the best chance for a 1 seed to go down in the first round since Halo. There's also circumstantial evidence borne of the Top 100 list that would not only suggest possible SFF walls holding down Metal Gear Solid, Goldeneye and perhaps even SOTN, but that most if not all of Division 128 was overrated.

This match would be the first of many that would help prove it. SoulCalibur was never in this match at all, and though MGS would start over 70% before falling to what you see above, this fact is irrelevant. One would assume that SoulCalibur would have gotten something like 40% given its Spring 2004 stat position. It never came close, and the bar was set for other series from Division 128 to bomb as well.

Halo? Grand Theft Auto? Super Smash Brothers? You're on notice, and you get a wag of the finger.

## Match Trends

## External Links

- [Match Updates](http://www.gamefaqscontests.com/drupal/node/22?matchnum=2429&num=2)
- [Oracle Match Results](http://oraclechallenge.com/archives.php?contest=SpC2k6&type=match&match=5)

• **Previous Match**       • **Next Match**

---

## (4)Fire Emblem vs (5)Silent Hill 2006

_source: (4)Fire Emblem vs (5)Silent Hill 2006 (revid 56339)_

## Results

Friday, July 7th, 2006

## Ulti's Analysis

- **Division:** Snake Division
- **Match \#:** 06
- **Match Date:** Friday, July 7th, 2006
- **Vote difference:** 14,286
- **Oracle Expectations:** Fire Emblem - 54.58% 125 for - 36 against
- **GameFAQs Prediction:** Fire Emblem - 50.65% (23,399 brackets)

This was pretty much the "stinker" match of the contest in that everyone expected it to have the lowest vote totals and least amount of excitement, despite it being somewhat up in the air. Think Vyse/Laharl from 2004. Yet even still, the match broke 100,000 votes. And yes, this was the lowest-scoring bout of the contest. Crazy stuff.

Despite the prediction percentage being even, this was an affair in which the casual bracketmaker went one way, but Board 8 went the other. 8 more or less favored Fire Emblem by a mile, and for good reason. This was a match between two cultish series, and whichever one was less cult would win. Silent Hill, even with a movie, didn't look able to match the up-and-coming status of the Fire Emblem series. Two characters made it into SSBM, the first-ever Fire Emblem game to hit the US sold over 1 million copies, and there have been two Fire Emblem games released here since. Fire Emblem Wii is also on the way, plus Fire Emblem is Nintendo. How could Silent Hill, which is cult in every sense of the word, even compare to this?

Even more telling is that two of the people that spammed Silent Hill nominations to hell and back in the first place (Inviso and FFDragon) admitted that the game was overseeded and bound to lose. Vlado was more or less the only Board 8 regular I can think of that actually favored a Silent Hill win, with such stunning evidence as "no one cares about the Fire Emblem series". Everyone else more or less agreed Silent Hill would lose with ease.

And lose it did. Fire Emblem started the match on fire (lolcwuti.... oh screw it), saw its percentage level off below 60, then proceeded to win in rather typical "stinker" fashion. It increased its lead easily, lost an update every now and then, was never in any real danger of winning, and finished with a 57-43 blowout win. Cue mass whining from Silent Hill fans who overestimated the mainstream value of their series carrying over to a GameFAQs poll. And for the millionth time, a movie or TV commercial or whatever doesn't matter without the popularity of games to back up said appearances.

From a totally biased point of view, I'm glad Fire Emblem won. I've yet to play a game in the series that I haven't liked, and it deserved vindication after that horrendous loss to FFTA two years ago. It's a shame it was stuck in one-and-out mode, but a win is better than nothing. Yay FE!

## Match Trends

## External Links

- [Match Updates](http://www.gamefaqscontests.com/drupal/node/22?matchnum=2430&num=2)
- [Oracle Match Results](http://oraclechallenge.com/archives.php?contest=SpC2k6&type=match&match=6)

• **Previous Match**       • **Next Match**

---

## (3)Castlevania vs (6)Halo 2006

_source: (3)Castlevania vs (6)Halo 2006 (revid 67799)_

## Results

Saturday, July 8th, 2006

## Ulti's Analysis

- **Division:** Snake Division
- **Match \#:** 07
- **Match Date:** Saturday, July 8th, 2006
- **Vote difference:** 11,146
- **Oracle Expectations:** Castlevania - 44.61% 35 for - 127 against
- **GameFAQs Prediction:** Castlevania - 31.49% (14,548 brackets)

When the bracket was first released, Halo was an entrant that a lot of people put faith into due to past contest stats. Granted Halo isn't exactly a transitive entity, but its performance has still been impressive. Relatively, anyway.

Master Chief has twice come back from being down over 2000 votes in a poll. And if you're one of those people who believes that "winning the day vote" entails not getting your ass whipped as badly during the day that you did during other demographics in a match, then I believe Master Chief has won the day vote in every match he's ever been a part of.

Which brings us to Halo itself. Sure Halo lost to Starcraft as a 1 seed, but Halo did come back from being down 1045 votes in that match, plus it used a killer day vote to build a 1100 vote lead for itself before utterly collapsing. However, given what Starcraft did later on in that contest, Halo's Xst strength was clearly not a fluke. And given that Halo did better against Starcraft than Kingdom Hearts did in that same contest, Halo \> Kingdom Hearts was perhaps the best "upset" pick of the contest. Then again, look ahead at the prediction percentages for the entire contest. Halo \> KH was the casual pick for this fourpack.

The problem with thinking of Halo so highly is that no one bothered listening to the few Castlevania supporters lying around. Halo biggest strength (it's in every match) is also its biggest weakness. Halo, much like the Jacksonville Jaguars, plays down to competition. It'll almost never blow anything out, save for utter crap. So even though it can be in match with things like Starcraft, midcarders like Donkey Kong can hang with it as well. The power of no transitivity and a site-wide hate of Xbox can do that.

Which made this match all the more interesting. Most people expected Halo to win, but most also expected Castlevania to put on a show early. In fact, given Alucard and SOTN's voting trends, some predicted that this match would feature the biggest comeback of all time.

The first part of this came true, at least. Halo grabbed a small lead via bracket voting early and led at the first freeze. Castlevania fought back to a small lead at the second freeze. From there, Castlevania exploded en route to whipping Halo's ass. It built a 1000 vote lead within an hour and a half, and showed no signs of slowing down throughout the night. By the time three hours was up, the lead was 2000. By 4:30, 3000. Yet this was the only contest match ever in which something went down by that much and the losing side was calling the match in the favor of said loser, even though it wasn't coming close to winning any updates.

Granted Halo has a nice history of coming back, but Castlevania was winning updates with 55-60% of the vote. Nothing short of a small miracle was going to save Halo if it didn't get its ass in gear in a hurry. But it never happened.

And one needs to look into that for a second just to see how insane it really was. Halo took the day vote in every single match it had ever been in before it faced off against Castlevania. Every one. Felix, Aeris, Starcraft, Crash Bandicoot, Frog, CATS, Donkey Kong and Crono all felt the burn. Yet Castlevania, master of completely sucking ass with the day vote (I'm fairly sure that all matches involving CV in the past saw drastic percentage dropoffs), took the day vote from something historically known for working miracles with it. Sure Halo won an update every now and then... by like single digit votes. Castlevania took the day vote in stride; instead of winning updates in the 55-60% range, it dropped to a measly 51-55% range en route to CV easily dispatching Halo by over 11000 votes. It's as if there was no difference between voter demographics at all, which would eventually go down as one of the biggest shockers of the entire contest. This was a match in which people called for Halo's victory because Castlevania was "only" up by 4000 votes at 6:30 a.m., which says a lot about past voting trends.

Halo has been exposed as a fraud time and time again in these contests, yet people (including me) retain faith in it. I was one of many that had it beating Kingdom Hearts (\<\_\<), and many people even had it beating Metal Gear, as evidenced by the low prediction percentage for Metal Gear winning the division. Xbox hate has died down a little bit, but still very much exists on this site. This was also a possible warning sign for an "It's not a series" mentality taking over the contest, given that Halo is only two games. Sure two games is technically a series, but still.

But the real warning sign here is the top half of Division 128 being overrated to hell and back. Halo tanked. SoulCalibur tanked. If Wind Waker and Metroid Prime were in this contest, I'm sure they would tank. And Gordon Freeman tanks no matter what.

Though before ending this, some credit to Castlevania. It's a series that has spanned across every console generation and most consoles outright. It may be a niche series, but it clearly had enough strength to hold its own from day one even with the horrid day vote trends from the past. The best answer for why CV won might have come from the Halo 2 boards itself: "Castlevania is the better, more important series".

## Match Trends

## Ed Bellis' Analysis

One of the unspoken rules of the contest is that every single match involving Halo or Master Chief must be entertaining or interesting in some way. (The sole exception to this is Master Chief vs. Crash Bandicoot, 2004. Because, c’mon, it’s Crash Bandicoot.) When the series bracket was announced, the 6-seeded Halo faced stiff competition in Round Two from Kingdom Hearts… but first it had to get past Castlevania. Despite the fact that Halo and Master Chief have a reputation for tanking to holy hell in the past, most of the board put its faith in Halo to make it out of Round One without a second thought.

I don’t know much about voting trends in terms of day vote and night vote and afterschool vote and the like, but I do know that Halo is supposed to be crazy with the day vote. Well, Castlevania laughed at Halo’s great day vote and absolutely buried it, en route to a 55-45 victory. What happened here? Well, it’s also commonly accepted that anti-votes are an innate property of Halo/Master Chief; at least until this year, Xbox hate ran rampant on this site. That and few people bothered to think about Castlevania as being an influential series with a game on damn near every platform. A satisfying upset for the few who managed to pick it correctly.

## External Links

- [Match Updates](http://www.gamefaqscontests.com/drupal/node/22?matchnum=2431&num=2)
- [Oracle Match Results](http://oraclechallenge.com/archives.php?contest=SpC2k6&type=match&match=7)

• **Previous Match**       • **Next Match**

---

## (2)Kingdom Hearts vs (7)Harvest Moon 2006

_source: (2)Kingdom Hearts vs (7)Harvest Moon 2006 (revid 56343)_

## Results

Sunday, July 9th, 2006

## Ulti's Analysis

- **Division:** Snake Division
- **Match \#:** 08
- **Match Date:** Sunday, July 9th, 2006
- **Vote difference:** 51,684
- **Oracle Expectations:** Kingdom Hearts - 78.50% 160 for - 0 against
- **GameFAQs Prediction:** Kingdom Hearts - 90.30% (41,717 brackets)

Kingdom Hearts has got to be the only contest entrant that can score a 73-27 blowout yet still have people going doomsday prophecy on it. This happened last year too, when Sora "failed" to go Snake-Tanner on Agent 47. People thought it was a guarantee that Alucard would destroy him the next round, yet Sora won with relative ease.

Fast forward to one year later. Castlevania pulls off a win, then Kingdom Hearts doesn't go historically berserk against total cult fodder in the very next match. Doomsday for Kingdom Hearts again. Never mind KH pulling in almost 82000 votes by itself or anything \<\_\<

Not that Castlevania didn't have an excellent chance to win (I figured that CV beat a series I thought could beat KH, so why couldn't CV win?), but totally dismissing Kingdom Hearts after its sequel was silly. After all, this was the same series responsible for the legendary KHF of Summer 2003.

And uh... I've never played a Harvest Moon game, so I don't even know what KH was "supposed" to get in this. All I know is that it's anywhere between cult and niche fodder, and that KH did well enough on it to be impressive.

## Match Trends

## External Links

- [Match Updates](http://www.gamefaqscontests.com/drupal/node/22?matchnum=2432&num=2)
- [Oracle Match Results](http://oraclechallenge.com/archives.php?contest=SpC2k6&type=match&match=8)

• **Previous Match**       • **Next Match**

---

## (1)Super Mario Bros. vs (8)Madden NFL 2006

_source: (1)Super Mario Bros. vs (8)Madden NFL 2006 (revid 56345)_

## Results

Monday, July 10th, 2006

## Ulti's Analysis

- **Division:** Mushroom Division
- **Match \#:** 09
- **Match Date:** Monday, July 10th, 2006
- **Vote difference:** 99,537
- **Oracle Expectations:** Super Mario Bros. - 86.14% 164 for - 0 against
- **GameFAQs Prediction:** Super Mario Bros. - 96.11% (44,401 brackets)

There is a certain charm that comes in historical blowouts, and Madden NFL was this contest's best version of Tanner. Madden was the only series in the contest to crack the all time top ten lowest individual vote totals.

But what gets me were all the people before the contest saying that Madden could be a sleeper dark pick if he were given a good spot in the bracket. Never mind the fact that GameFAQs has historically hated virtually all sports games. I'm also one of the 4 Madden fans that exist on GameFAQs, and I conceded that it would be the ultimate of fodder before this contest began.

This match played out like all other hilarious blowouts, with the loser having updates where it would pull in like single digit vote totals, and the winner looked like a would-be contest champion. Though in Mario's case, I don't know if the overestimation was too far gone. Zelda came out and set a new record for vote totals, only to see it shattered with ease by its Nintendo brethren eight days later. I put more stock into individual votes than most, so it was during this match that I started to figure that Zelda and Mario both had good shots at taking Final Fantasy down. Either that, or the two series just happened to be handed Barry Horowitz in the bracket. Who would know for sure until the Final Four.

## Match Trends

## External Links

- [Match Updates](http://www.gamefaqscontests.com/drupal/node/22?matchnum=2433&num=2)
- [Oracle Match Results](http://oraclechallenge.com/archives.php?contest=SpC2k6&type=match&match=9)

• **Previous Match**       • **Next Match**

---

## (4)Grand Theft Auto vs (5)Warcraft 2006

_source: (4)Grand Theft Auto vs (5)Warcraft 2006 (revid 72953)_

## Results

Tuesday, July 11th, 2006

## Ulti's Analysis

- **Division:** Mushroom Division
- **Match \#:** 10
- **Match Date:** Tuesday, July 11th, 2006
- **Vote difference:** 1,116
- **Oracle Expectations:** Warcraft - 45.12% 37 for - 128 against
- **GameFAQs Prediction:** Warcraft - 33.94% (15,680 brackets)

For whatever reason, this here match was the big argument pre-contest. Not the final, which was probably a tossup from day one, but a one-point match in which the winner was guaranteed to lose next round.

Blizzard likes to screw with people in these contests. Everyone knows about Starcraft's run in 2004, followed by Diablo's this-run-makes-me-look stronger-than-I actually-am effort in 2005, followed by Kerrigan and Diablo stinking it up that very summer. And here we were, two years after Blizzard's initial splash in these contests, seeing Warcraft in a bracket for the first time.

Compared to Diablo and Starcraft, at least in America, Warcraft was that forgotten third series that people knew existed, but rarely worried about actually playing. Sure people came over to Warcraft 3 from Starcraft, but most of the Starcraft carry-overs were too stubborn to stick around. LordOfDabu burned out on it after about 500 games, so he tells me. How he's played something like 12,000 games of Starcraft without burnout is beyond me, but that's an entirely different issue. Warcraft 3 being released was nothing like Starcraft, which caused virtually all of the Warcraft 2 players to jump ship.

Anyway, to the point. If World of Warcraft doesn't exist, I maintain that the echelon goes Starcraft \> Diablo \>\>\> Warcraft in the United States, and I stand by it. However, WoW does exist, which is the one thing that made this match interesting. WoW was perhaps the ultimate wild card due to its rallying potential alone, what with its 6 million players (though I'm not sure how many of them are regulars; a veteran of the game would know that better than I) at the ready. Not to say that we'd see 6 million votes in a poll, but if Warcraft managed to survive the initial GTA onslaught that everyone knew was coming, then the odds of it losing a close match given the fanbase of the most popular game was slim to none, assuming the players felt like taking time away from their busy raid schedules and all.

The other side to this was whether or not GTA was too strong for the potential rallying to even matter in the first place. Vice City only lost to SSBM by 5000 votes. San Andreas won GOTY on GameFAQs. It can be assumed that GTA3 would also be a machine in polls, but we haven't seen it in one yet. People could cite the character performances as a potential weakness for GTA, but the performance of the games speaks for itself. And the games have always been miles ahead of the characters, for whatever reason. If GTA was able to live up to the potential seen from it in the past, then Warcraft would need one hell of an effort to win.

That said, Warcraft was given a huge break before this contest even began. This thing was originally slated to start on July 1st. The contest started one day late, which pushed this match to a Tuesday. WoW servers are given weekly maintenance and patches and such on Tuesdays, which meant that most if not all of the WoW regulars would be on the forums (because seriously, these people know *nothing* else; I wouldn't be surprised if half of them forgot how to brush their teeth by now).

One could have called the match over right then and there. And even if you didn't want to go that far, you could have called this match over after it was an hour old. GTA jumped out to an expected early lead via a huge bracket voting rush, to the tune of 337 votes. 10 minutes later, GTA's lead was down to 200. Given the amount of rallying that was to take place throughout this match, there was literally no way Warcraft was going to lose this if the match turned out to be close. Well, it turned out to be close. Cue what was literally the most boring close match of all time, because everyone saw what was coming hours before it happened.

What Warcraft did in this match is similar to how I use Peach in SSBM in that if I get up on you even once, the match is over. It'll all annoying "NONE SHALL PASS!" defense on my end after that. And yes, I can bring up Peach in any rant \<3

Anyway Warcraft was able to take away GTA's lead fairly easily. From then on it was a streetfight between the two, complete with massive amounts of rallying on both sides. The problem for GTA is that nothing it had in its arsenal was able to match the sheer numbers from WoW's fanbase. One topic on the forums exploded in views after a blue posted in it, and various such vote intakes for Warcraft would happen all throughout the match. Whenever GTA tried making a move to come back (and it was never down by an unbeatable amount), Warcraft would slap it back down. This match was the ultimate "Does rallying matter?" test given the circumstances, and Warcraft proved that it can. Warcraft would go on to win by 1100 votes, but the numbers in this match don't really matter. This was over the second Warcraft showed that it would be close.

The funniest thing about this match is that GTA fans knew they were defeated, too. Battle cries eventually became "I hope CJayC catches all of the people cheating in Warcraft's favor". Yeah, about that...

From CJayC Posted 7/12/2006 12:06:25 AM \#001

As with the last few contests, I'll try to do this whenever a vote is extremely close (under 1% difference).

13 users got axed for egregious vote stuffing (i.e. can't even begin to argue it was accidental, or that their brother, cousin, friend, and dog just happened to vote on the same computer). 12 of them were stuffing for GTA.

And, just for the conspiracy theorists, all the fraudulent votes we caught put together would have added just 600 votes for GTA, still not enough to put them over the top.

Most Ironic Account Name Banned: "SC2K6Champ".

Warcraft benefited from a massive day-long rally, spurred on by World of Warcraft itself, but there were no unusual voting patterns or anything suspect about the vote totals; external influences are allowed, as we simply can't control the rest of the Internet, and you can never underestimate the number of Blizzard fans (although I don't give it a snowball's chance against Mario). There were no unexplained spikes, no mass proxy use, no strange voting patterns, and while traffic was much higher today than for other contests, it was expected to be so and was well within the norm.

Sess, EC and Luster Soldier were three of the people axed. And no, 500 of the 600 stuffed GTA votes weren't Lusty's; he only managed to get in about 50 before the doomhammer caught up to him. Warcraft won fairly, and all of the Board 8 WoW fans were vindicated.

Truth be told, I don't hate WoW at all. Granted it has the worst fans in gaming and has effectively ruined Blizzard, but the game itself would be fine if there were any decent single player options. I'm just not a big fan of the whole "you need 39 other people and 5-6 hours of free time every day to enjoy the best the game has to offer" stuff, not to mention how elitist guilds are. If you aren't level 60, aren't wearing a ton of the best gear and don't know exactly what to do in every fight before going in, good luck actually getting into a good guild. And good luck having anything relating to a social life on top of this, which is the curse of MMOs in general. More games like Oblivion need to exist, posthaste. There's also the lovely fact that Blizzard has worked its way into a corner with WoW; all of their time and energy now has to go into one game, and Diablo 3/Starcraft 2/Warcraft 4 are all going to suck as a result. Assuming Blizzard even find the time to make them in the first place, which they won't. They'll just release an expansion every 6 months and ride the coattails of 6 million shelling out 12 bucks a month.

But on top of even that, my big complaint with this match (and the only one that's actually valid, I'll admit) is that Warcraft won solely because of WoW. I would have loved Warcraft 3 being the reason for all this, because I like it far better than any game in either series. Though because of WC3, you'll never hear me complain about the result or accuse WC of foul play. The better game won =p

Fun fact: Rallying began for Mario/Warcraft after GTA lost. "Warcraft is good, but IT'S FREAKING *MARIO*" was the response of choice.

## Match Trends

## Ed Bellis' Analysis

The board being so wrong has never felt so right. When the series bracket was announced, most people assumed that, given Grand Theft Auto’s excellent showings in things like Game of the Year polls, they would walk all over Warcraft; some particular stat-heads went so far as to take this match as a personal assault on World of Warcraft fans (hey there Ulti), making loud and brash claims about how they wouldn’t care about this match since they couldn’t get away from their game for a few measly seconds.

Naturally, this blew up in everybody’s faces when Warcraft decided to make a match of it. Abnormally high vote totals led many to declare cries of vote-stuffing, yet the only stuffers that were caught were, ironically, for Grand Theft Auto. Warcraft’s strength was legitimate, and it managed to silence all the doubters and whoop GTA in a tight match. Some analysts think a lot has to do with the WoW servers being down for maintenance on the day of the match, which is certainly possible, but all that really matters is that there was a lot of crow being eaten on the board after this match. Very satisfying (and this from a guy who had GTA pegged with 58% of the vote).

## External Links

- [Match Updates](http://www.gamefaqscontests.com/drupal/node/22?matchnum=2434&num=2)
- [Oracle Match Results](http://oraclechallenge.com/archives.php?contest=SpC2k6&type=match&match=10)

• **Previous Match**       • **Next Match**

---

## (3)Sonic the Hedgehog vs (6)Devil May Cry 2006

_source: (3)Sonic the Hedgehog vs (6)Devil May Cry 2006 (revid 67801)_

## Results

Wednesday, July 12th, 2006

## Ulti's Analysis

- **Division:** Mushroom Division
- **Match \#:** 11
- **Match Date:** Wednesday, July 12th, 2006
- **Vote difference:** 48,077
- **Oracle Expectations:** Sonic the Hedgehog - 65.44% 164 for - 2 against
- **GameFAQs Prediction:** Sonic the Hedgehog - 77.06% (35,600 brackets)

HOW does Shadow make that match pic and not Tails? Ugh.

Anyway, everyone (except Lopen, but he doesn't count) knew that Sonic had this match won with ease. The issue was what his percentage would end up being, given that Sonic and Dante had a match once. Sonic scored 62.03% on him in said match. One could assume, based on how much stock you put into series versus characters, that Sonic going well above or well below that 62.03% standard could set off warning signals one way or the other. After all, this match had little if anything to do with Devil May Cry; all eyes were on Sonic vs Smash Brothers, especially given how gaming's newer series were tanking in this contest left and right.

As expected, Sonic went out and whipped Devil May Cry's ass. Sonic was near 80% during the initial surge, and though he would quickly level off to winning by just under 71%, his beating of DMC here couldn't exactly go ignored. Matches featuring Dante see very little in terms of percentage swing, so Sonic's percentage stalling and leveling quickly was to be expected. That said, he went well over that 62.03% mentioned earlier.

Cause for concern for SSB? I mean, Halo tanked. GTA tanked. DMC tanked. Small/recent series were bombing all over the place, and one can assume that the Sonic \> SSB bandwagon would have gained a ton of steam had Smash gone out and tanked against Dragon Quest. Or maybe Nintendo would prove to be immune to such things, who knows.

But enough analysis and more laughing at Lopen, posthaste!

## Match Trends

## External Links

- [Match Updates](http://www.gamefaqscontests.com/drupal/node/22?matchnum=2435&num=2)
- [Oracle Match Results](http://oraclechallenge.com/archives.php?contest=SpC2k6&type=match&match=11)

• **Previous Match**       • **Next Match**

---

## (2)Super Smash Bros. vs (7)Dragon Quest 2006

_source: (2)Super Smash Bros. vs (7)Dragon Quest 2006 (revid 56351)_

## Results

Thursday, July 13th, 2006

## Ulti's Analysis

- **Division:** Mushroom Division
- **Match \#:** 12
- **Match Date:** Thursday, July 13th, 2006
- **Vote difference:** 62,697
- **Oracle Expectations:** Super Smash Bros. - 76.26% 167 for - 0 against
- **GameFAQs Prediction:** Super Smash Bros. - 81.25% (37,536 brackets)

I have to hand it to WoW's fans for not being the most annoying during a contest match in the Best Series Ever contest. That honor goes to Dragon Quest fans by light years, even if primacy and recency effects will cause people to think that it's something else.

Dragon Quest fans really took the cake in this department. Never before have I born witness to such massive amounts of nonsensical whining over a premeditated blowout than I have during this match. The general complaints were that Smash Brothers wasn't a series, that it was little more than a party fighter (even though both games are better than any other fighter by eons, regardless of what the elitist traditional fighting game fans say), and that it shouldn't have even been in this contest in the first place. Oh, and that Dragon Quest's place in gaming history should have caused it to win.

On NintendoFAQs, as a cult icon (which is all that DQ is these days in America), against Nintendo's most popular game over the last five years. Right.

DQ's fans managed to overshadow the fact that based on expectations, Dragon Quest did fairly well here. There was almost no percentage movement at all during the match, save for SSB leveling off a little bit in the first few hours. Those that bothered ignoring all of the whining used this match to sound the Sonic \> SSB alarms, because Board 8 loves to call entire contests based on the first five minutes of any match. We've literally reached an age in these contests where people call everything based on unrealistic expectations instead of something just winning or losing, but that's a different issue entirely.

It also has to be noted that Jigglypuff appears twice in the match picture. One is easy to see, but look closely in the middle of Dragon Quest's side. WTF happened there?

Anyhoo, based on what you thought SSB \*should\* have done (which is a really stupid way to look at contest matches, but I digress), it either performed well or massively disappointed. Yay possible Sonic/Smash slobberknocker. And congrats to Dragon Quest's fans for representing their series well during the match. I'm sure the way you all acted will convince others to rally behind DQ games and characters for future contests. Or not.

## Match Trends

## External Links

- [Match Updates](http://www.gamefaqscontests.com/drupal/node/22?matchnum=2436&num=2)
- [Oracle Match Results](http://oraclechallenge.com/archives.php?contest=SpC2k6&type=match&match=12)

• **Previous Match**       • **Next Match**

---

## (1)Final Fantasy vs (8)Diablo 2006

_source: (1)Final Fantasy vs (8)Diablo 2006 (revid 56353)_

## Results

Friday, July 14th, 2006

## Ulti's Analysis

- **Division:** Ultima Division
- **Match \#:** 13
- **Match Date:** Friday, July 14th, 2006
- **Vote difference:** 90,088
- **Oracle Expectations:** Final Fantasy - 79.25% 165 for - 1 against
- **GameFAQs Prediction:** Final Fantasy - 97.25% (44,928 brackets)

Though this match was a predetermined blowout, the onus was on Final Fantasy in this match to perform well following the killer matches from Zelda and Mario in the matches prior. It was widely believed that Final Fantasy was the favorite to win the entire contest, but Zelda or even Mario pulling the upset wasn't impossible given the NintendoFAQs nonsense that has gone down over the last two years.

We had to wait to see what Final Fantasy was capable of, because some glitch caused the poll to be 30 minutes late. When FF and Diablo finally came out of the gate, Final Fantasy showcased itself in grand fashion. FF's blowout of Diablo was so epic that some called Final Fantasy the most powerful force ever seen in contests. On the surface, it's hard to argue with this. Diablo proved to be a fairly solid midcarder through the two 2005 contests, and can assume that Diablo 2 would have decent strength in a games contest. Final Fantasy flattened all of this in the blink of an eye. The vote totals and final percentage for it speak for themselves, especially given that the poll started 30 minutes late.

But hypothetically, imagine that this match were Final Fantasy 7 vs Diablo 2, or even Final Fantasy the series versus Diablo 2. Would the percentages be all that different? Given that Diablo is a series featuring two games and an expansion, one could postulate that this match was Final Fantasy versus D2: Lord of Destruction. From there, the blowout here doesn't seem so epic. For what it's worth, there's also the unbelievably unbalanced match picture that features FF's three most popular leads against three blobs and no Diablo the character.

Zelda had the prediction percentage advantage, Mario was less than a percent behind, and total votes were effectively even at this point. FF was still the favorite after this match, but not Villains Contest Sephiroth-style.

## Match Trends

## External Links

- [Match Updates](http://www.gamefaqscontests.com/drupal/node/22?matchnum=2437&num=2)
- [Oracle Match Results](http://oraclechallenge.com/archives.php?contest=SpC2k6&type=match&match=13)

• **Previous Match**       • **Next Match**

---

## (4)Mega Man vs (5)Mario Kart 2006

_source: (4)Mega Man vs (5)Mario Kart 2006 (revid 56355)_

## Results

Saturday, July 15th, 2006

## Ulti's Analysis

- **Division:** Ultima Division
- **Match \#:** 14
- **Match Date:** Saturday, July 15th, 2006
- **Vote difference:** 17,348
- **Oracle Expectations:** Mega Man - 54.09% 122 for - 45 against
- **GameFAQs Prediction:** Mega Man - 62.96% (29,086 brackets)

This was one of the most debated pre-contest matches of the tournament, and I'll never for the life of me figure out why. It took me 2 seconds to pick Mega Man in this match. Ditto for Sir Chris, which is why yoblazer33's main account no longer exists.

From what I can gather, the logic behind people picking Mario Kart was such. One, the names "Mario" and "Mega Man" both appearing in a poll would automatically cause Mario to score SFF and win with ease. Mario Kart being a side series for Mario was meaningless (which I actually agree with), because all Mario Kart games have sold in the millions and would easily beat any Mega Man title. That latter point may be true, but this match wasn't Mega Man X versus Mario Kart 64.

Two, Mario Kart the series was bound to be strong due to said sales, especially when compared to Mega Man. I can get behind this, because you can't really argue with something having both the Nintendo name and large sales behind it.

But the last major point was the most ridiculous, which was that people assumed that the name "Mega Man" in the poll wouldn't be an all-inclusive entity in the eyes of voters; "Mega Man X the series is in the bracket, I'm going to not vote Mega Man because of this due to liking the former series more!"

Totally ridiculous reasoning (and I never argued that Mario Kart had no chance to win, just that the people saying "Mega Man" wasn't going to be all-inclusive were off their rockers), and a lot of people overthought themselves due to the ramblings of the board. What became an obvious two-second pick turned into a massive debate for literally no good reason. I blame Board 8's obsession with Mario Kart DS, though I'll leave my full hate of Mario Kart and the board's obsession with bad Nintendo games out of this. yoblazer betting his account on this one also caused a lot of people to take the upset, because yo has the best contest history of anyone on the board. He's also convincing when he argues points due to such.

Though when the match started and Mega Man beat the living piss out of Mario Kart, half the board's world came crashing down and the other half was left asking why this was such a big deal in the first place. Mario Kart had the lead for all of two seconds, then got blasted away throughout the rest of the match. Absolute destruction Ulti-style, baby. Overly debated matches being this far apart in percentage = total owning.

I'd seriously love to know how anyone thought that the people voting weren't going to look at "Mega Man" as Mega Man's entire series wrapped up into one. Phediuk put all the games into his comparison's game for a reason.

## Match Trends

## External Links

- [Match Updates](http://www.gamefaqscontests.com/drupal/node/22?matchnum=2438&num=2)
- [Oracle Match Results](http://oraclechallenge.com/archives.php?contest=SpC2k6&type=match&match=14)

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---

## (3)The Elder Scrolls vs (6)Street Fighter 2006

_source: (3)The Elder Scrolls vs (6)Street Fighter 2006 (revid 56357)_

## Results

Sunday, July 16th, 2006

## Ulti's Analysis

- **Division:** Ultima Division
- **Match \#:** 15
- **Match Date:** Sunday, July 16th, 2006
- **Vote difference:** 32,622
- **Oracle Expectations:** Street Fighter - 60.31% 154 for - 12 against
- **GameFAQs Prediction:** Street Fighter - 65.96% (30,472 brackets)

I saw maybe one update of the match and about 2 minutes' worth of board topics, but it was more than enough to gauge the sad state that this match would become.

Despite all evidence pointing to the fact that Street Fighter winning this was a lock, Elder Scrolls fans made it a point to act as loud and obnoxious as possible every day leading up to this match. I even remember Villainous Fawful making a topic guaranteeing that TES would win, and that the board would eat crow solely due to being unfamiliar with the Elder Scrolls as a series. This is actually one of the more tame examples I can remember off the top of my head to bring up.

Essentially, TES fans were banking on Oblivion's insane popularity to give TES the match. Never mind the fact that PC and Xbox gaming on GameFAQs is laughable compared to the popularity levels of the consoles Street Fighter has seen, namely SNES, Genesis and Playstation 2. There's also the fact that Street Fighter is an accomplished series that most everyone has experience in, while TES is a niche RPG series. I've said this a million times, but once can't hurt if it helps to hammer the point into a few more thick skulls: non-Square RPG entities will tank in contests. Period, end of discussion. Oh, and bringing up the FAQ Top 50 list is completely irrelevant. Stop doing it.

The match eventually began, and predictably, The Elder Scrolls got its ass whipped. Street Fighter flirted with a doubling for awhile, but would eventually fall just short. But the outcome of this match was secondary given that two of gaming's most MATURE AND LEVEL-HEADED fanbases were all over Board 8 during the match.

On one end were the elitist Elder Scrolls snobs who could not fathom that any human being could consider any game better than Oblivion. It was also a massive shock that a subpar fighting series like Street Fighter had any popularity, given that any one of 900 others were better. Street Fighter 2 essentially starting the genre and saving the life of the arcade industry was of course irrelevant.

Not to say that Street Fighter fans were acting any better, mind. Fighting game elitists are some of the most annoying gamers to talk to about anything, let alone fighting games. So when people began to question Street Fighter's merit as a series through Elder Scrolls getting its ass whipped, you can bet that legions of "LK MK xx MK xx -\> QCF QCF MP -\> 6BBB6BBB6BBB" snobs were ready, willing and able to post their incoherent babble all over the place. Rinse and repeat for hundreds of the most pointless back-and-forth topics of all time. I'm happy I wasn't home to witness most of this nonsense, because my brain would likely chosen to cease functioning.

Lost in all this was that the upcoming Street Fighter/Resident Evil clash was actually something worth talking about, even if RE was the clear favorite going in.

## Match Trends

## External Links

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## (2)Resident Evil vs (7)Shadow Hearts 2006

_source: (2)Resident Evil vs (7)Shadow Hearts 2006 (revid 56359)_

## Results

Monday, July 17th, 2006

## Ulti's Analysis

- **Division:** Ultima Division
- **Match \#:** 16
- **Match Date:** Monday, July 17th, 2006
- **Vote difference:** 84,069
- **Oracle Expectations:** Resident Evil - 76.78% 165 for - 0 against
- **GameFAQs Prediction:** Resident Evil - 96.21% (44,447 brackets)

Someone needs to keep Shadow Hearts as far away from these contests as possible. One year after Yuri stunk up the joint and managed to place dead last in the X-Stats, Shadow Hearts was at it again, this time against Resident Evil. Not one full week after Madden all but guaranteed himself a spot at the bottom of Board 8's favorite set of percentages, Yuri Hyuga and company made their claim to be the new contest joke.

It wasn't all bad for Shadow Hearts, to be fair. The hardcore Resident Evil fans of the board got to see their favorite series almost break 100,000 total votes and 90% in a match. But once the thrill of seeing where RE would place on the all-time vote total list wore down, we were left with another match in which the winner's perceived strength was inflated due to being paired up against complete joke fodder. And no, this comment says nothing ill of SH as a series. But its 5 fans can only get it so far in a contest setting.

It's pretty odd that I'm moving rather slow through this contest and yet this match marks the halfway point. Brief first round overview:

- HOLY VOTALS batman! It's a pity we didn't see this contest done in the Spring, with a character battle actually in the summer. I say this because Cloud's final chance at Link is gone come Christmas.
- Every match broke 100k votes, a first.

## Match Trends

## External Links

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## (1)The Legend of Zelda vs (5)Mega Man X 2006

_source: (1)The Legend of Zelda vs (5)Mega Man X 2006 (revid 56361)_

## Results

Tuesday, July 18th, 2006

## Ulti's Analysis

- **Division:** Hyrule Division Semi Final
- **Match \#:** 17
- **Match Date:** Tuesday, July 18th, 2006
- **Vote difference:** 78,823
- **Oracle Expectations:** The Legend of Zelda - 75.39% 125 for - 0 against
- **GameFAQs Prediction:** The Legend of Zelda - 95.59% (44,161 brackets)

Before getting into the match, the match pic theme has to be brought up. Sprite rounds are generally kick-ass (though not always for the right reasons), but the thought of having dueling characters on both sides of the picture was genius on CJayC's part. And it's nice to see him use sprites from what is FAR AND AWAY THE BEST ZELDA GAME, LINK TO THE PAST BABY OH YES. And let's not forget that X and the Metool are \*\*\*\*ing awesome as well. Nice theme idea, and I literally couldn't wait to see the rest of the round once I saw this.

As for the match itself, the game of "Can you top this?" between Zelda and FF was officially on at this point. It's one thing to blow away Civilization in a Colossus vs Fodder match, but quite another to have record vote totals in an SFF match. How "Nintendo" MMX is and whether or not it causes pure Nintendo SFF can be argued by the stat mongers until the end of time, for all I care. This match was a clinic that proved Zelda was far from unable to take Final Fantasy down, though unfortunately between that and the match pics, there isn't much else to say. Just lots of watching and waiting.

I'll also never like the 32 entrant or the divisions of 8 idea. Calling something a divisional semifinal in the second round just seems off.

## Match Trends

## External Links

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## (3)Pokémon vs (2)Metroid 2006

_source: (3)Pokémon vs (2)Metroid 2006 (revid 56363)_

## Results

Wednesday, July 19th, 2006

## Ulti's Analysis

- **Division:** Hyrule Division Semi Final
- **Match \#:** 18
- **Match Date:** Wednesday, July 19th, 2006
- **Vote difference:** 6,403
- **Oracle Expectations:** Metroid - 66.37% 128 for - 3 against
- **GameFAQs Prediction:** Metroid - 57.29% (26,467 brackets)

Any Nintendo vs Nintendo match involving Metroid has the potential to be hilarious, and this one was yet another chapter in the tale of how badly Samus sucks in matches involving her own company.

After Pokémon shocked people by blasting the holy hell out of Star Ocean, the Pokémon \> Metroid bandwagon started going. And because most people were only doing it for fun and didn't actually expect Pokémon to do anything of note, Pokémon coming out and holding its own here was one of the highlights of the entire tournament. Remember, Metroid was essentially expected to win its first two matches with ease before bowing out to Zelda.

Stage 1 of this was done easily enough, though Stage 2 never really happened. Metroid came out of the gates slow as hell against Pokémon; if it weren't an SFF match, some people would have assumed that Metroid's measly 54% updates early on were signs of future trouble. Technically it was (there was no way that Metroid wasn't going to go out and get its ass whipped against Zelda in the next round), though Metroid managed to save some face in building a 1000 vote lead in just over an hour. Pokémon was actually able to win an update at the 1:30 mark, which set the tone for the rest of the match. Metroid was never in any danger of losing and actually built a lead steadily, but the fact that it was even struggling at all was telling enough. Pokémon, a series that is supposedly hated to hell and back all over GameFAQs, managed a respectable showing against a Noble Niner's series and even managed update wins every now and then.

Why Samus can't hack it against Nintendo is beyond me. Metroid being the third series on the echelon isn't really enough of a reason, nor is Metroid only being popular in America -- GameFAQs is an American site. The only thing I can think of is that people like Samus for her appearance in the two Smash Brothers titles (I had never heard of her before the original SSB) moreso than they do for the Metroid games. None of the other theories make any sense, and there's enough proof that SSB/M is more than capable of holding its own weight. We would see it again less than a week after this here match, in fact.

That said, time to give Pokémon some much-deserved credit. Its one win was over PaRappa the \*\*\*\*ing Rapper, for crissakes. Pikachu's other two matches were on the bad end of killings, and GSC got stuck behind a wall of SFF in 2004 and made to look more hated than it really is. Not only is Pokémon hate all but dead (and perhaps it never really existed to begin with), but Pikachu might have been the wrong proxy to use in 2002 and 2003. Something tells me that Mewtwo could wreak havoc if in the right spot, for reasons related to both Pokémon and SSBM.

## Match Trends

## External Links

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## (1)Metal Gear vs (4)Fire Emblem 2006

_source: (1)Metal Gear vs (4)Fire Emblem 2006 (revid 56365)_

## Results

Thursday, July 20th, 2006

## Ulti's Analysis

- **Division:** Snake Division Semi Final
- **Match \#:** 19
- **Match Date:** Thursday, July 20th, 2006
- **Vote difference:** 34,560
- **Oracle Expectations:** Metal Gear - 73.81% 132 for - 0 against
- **GameFAQs Prediction:** Metal Gear - 82.08% (37,919 brackets)

Solid Shit, meet Effeminate Marth. Effeminate Marth, Solid Shit. Seriously, the only character in that picture that I recognize is the generic Brigand.

This was an odd blowout in that the board vote actually gave Fire Emblem the lead for a few seconds. Metal Gear recovered quickly, but never really wowed in the match. It actually lost three percentage points throughout the day. This wasn't too big a deal given that of the four favored Final Four candidates, Metal Gear's path was the easiest, but one would assume that Metal Gear would be able to blow away something allegedly as cult as Fire Emblem.

And it's not that people doubted Fire Emblem's strength after this match so much as Silent Hill's. Looking ahead to the stats we have now, Silent Hill is 22nd. How many of the series below SH would you honestly pick SH to beat?

Sadly, that's about the only thing that can be taken from this match. Metal Gear was expected to blow Fire Emblem away, it didn't quite do that, but it didn't really matter in the slightest. It was a lock to win its next match before losing to Zelda in the Final Four either way.

## Match Trends

## External Links

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## (3)Castlevania vs (2)Kingdom Hearts 2006

_source: (3)Castlevania vs (2)Kingdom Hearts 2006 (revid 56367)_

## Results

Friday, July 21st, 2006

## Ulti's Analysis

- **Division:** Snake Division Semi Final
- **Match \#:** 20
- **Match Date:** Friday, July 21st, 2006
- **Vote difference:** 3,416
- **Oracle Expectations:** Kingdom Hearts - 52.63% 80 for - 54 against
- **GameFAQs Prediction:** Kingdom Hearts - 29.90% (13,813 brackets)

Chain of Memories might be an odd game, but you can't deny that it arguably has the best sprites in any game of all time. Also odd is that a once-predictable slot in the bracket became one of the best matches of the contest.

Kingdom Hearts was the big favorite to win this fourpack, though a few Halo \> KH dissenters were always around. I'm also fairly sure that the casual pick was Halo winning the fourpack as well. The problem with all this was that Castlevania whipped Halo's ass so badly that the upset here was worth discussing. Going solely by Spring 2004 stats, Halo was stronger than Kingdom Hearts. Castlevania the series beat Halo the series, and by a large amount. If Kingdom Hearts 2 wasn't able to give the series a fairly decent boost, then we were possibly in for a nuclear meltdown in the prediction percentages.

Though early on, it looked like the whole CV \> KH mystique would disappear with ease. A large board vote bandwagon pushed Castlevania fairly well, but it barely had 45% of the votes after the first minute. However, Castlevania pulled near-even at the first five minute update. The two would literally go back and forth in near-even status for the first hour of the poll, setting up a potentially legendary match. Had Castlevania not gone berserk in the final five minute update of the first hour, I'm fairly sure it would have been the closest first hour of any contest match.

Speaking of that, Kingdom Hearts tailed off badly (in close match terms, anyway) once the true night vote hit. Castlevania used its best voting block to begin building a lead for itself, though Kingdom Hearts was able to win updates and stall every now and then. The end result was a slow grind by Castlevania in which it would build an 1100 vote lead for itself by morning. Kingdom Hearts massively stalled Castlevania once said morning vote hit, but CV was actually able to increase its lead to 1200.

Ironically enough, what Kingdom Hearts did throughout the night is what everyone was expecting of Halo. It prevented Castlevania from going totally berserk and put itself in a position to win once its day vote came along. It took a little while for Kingdom Hearts to gain some steam once said day vote hit, but it was unstoppable once it finally happened. In virtually every match that Kingdom Hearts has been involved with (and Ngamer has a chart of this lying around somewhere), it's gained percentage if not votes during the day. This is what allowed Ansem to finally shake off CATS. This is what allowed Kingdom Hearts to come back twice against Soul Calibur, with the final push being to come back from down 700 for an easy win.

And more importantly, Alucard and Sora were deadlocked last year until the morning vote hit, where Sora then took off to win by 10000 votes. Being down 1200 was barely anything for Kingdom Hearts, which has had vote swings of several thousand votes before. When paired with Castlevania's historically pathetic day vote, one could have called this match over the second Kingdom Hearts stalled the advance. Not surprisingly, Kingdom Hearts took off during the day. By the end of the match and despite every effort that Castlevania could possibly give, a 1200 vote lead turned into a 3400 vote loss. Given that Alucard allowed Sora to swing 10000 votes on him, Castlevania only allowing 4600 could be considered an improvement \<\_\<

It's interesting to consider whether or not Castlevania would have won this if Kingdom Hearts 2 didn't exist, but it's a moot point. Barely anyone even expected Castlevania to beat Halo, let alone hang around with Kingdom Hearts for 12 hours. CV was more or less the biggest surprise of an otherwise mundane contest. As for Kingdom Hearts, the parallel to 2005 was crazy. Alucard beats Kratos, Sora beats some joke fodder, and Sora/Alucard have a struggle before Sora gets his ass whipped by Solid Snake. This year, CV beats Halo, KH beats joke fodder, and CV/KH have another struggle before the winner goes on to get his ass whipped by Metal Gear. The only things missing were Kratos' man-boobs and Snake getting ready to snipe Sora again.

By the way, I have to hand it to the fans of the two series in this one. You quite literally made the board unreadable throughout every part of this match, turned this match into the biggest whinefest of the contest and made the more mature members of the board feel disgusted be associated with you. It's easy to say that Castlevania fans were the worse of the two groups ("HOW is CV losing to some kiddy series? It's got HISTORY!!"), but KH weren't exactly any better during the time that CV was winning. Matches like this make me miss the offseason, even if the offseason is generally filled with boring nonsense and people having nothing better to do than troll each other with alts. It's at least better than sitting through what went on during this match, which was amazing otherwise.

## Match Trends

## Ed Bellis' Analysis

There are few matches in contest history more maligned than this one – not for the result, but for the board’s behavior. What most forget is that this match was actually very entertaining – despite Castlevania’s excellent performance in Round One, most people still thought Kingdom Hearts would take it with ease. That was proven wrong very quickly when Castlevania actually started off with a commanding lead and would hold onto it for the first part of the match. Kingdom Hearts would eventually come back and win via the afterschool vote (again, I think – voting patterns aren’t my specialty), but it was a great fight, and Castlevania gave it everything it had.

The board, of course, wouldn’t sit quietly for this, and the sheer amount of whining that went on here was quite possibly the worst since 2003 and until L-Block’s run in 2007. But hey, that’s what good matches often do – provoke mindless fury.

## External Links

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## (1)Super Mario Bros. vs (5)Warcraft 2006

_source: (1)Super Mario Bros. vs (5)Warcraft 2006 (revid 72952)_

## Results

Saturday, July 22nd, 2006

## Ulti's Analysis

- **Division:** Mushroom Division Semi Final
- **Match \#:** 21
- **Match Date:** Saturday, July 22nd, 2006
- **Vote difference:** 75,034
- **Oracle Expectations:** Super Mario Bros. - 73.78% 134 for - 0 against
- **GameFAQs Prediction:** Super Mario Bros. - 76.46% (35,323 brackets)

This match picture was pretty indicative of how the match itself went. The few insane people out there that actually had Warcraft beating Mario in their brackets had their fate laid out for them even before Warcraft's beating of GTA was over. Rally topics were made on the WoW forums about the match, and "IT'S FREAKING *MARIO*!" was the most common response.

But even then, few expected Warcraft to get beaten quite this badly. In the beginning of the match, Mario was actually near 85%. It's a telling sign when a fanbase considers a drop from 85% to \*only\* winning with 81% a moral victory of sorts, though the oddity of Mario not increasing his percentage with the day vote was relatively meaningless here. Mario's killing of Warcraft was a clear sign that Mario had a good chance at Final Fantasy in the final four of this thing, at least given how strong most expected GTA to be before the contest started. And if GTA was expected to have possible top four strength, then Warcraft being in the same boat was just common sense at this point.

Unfortunately, the only excitement this match had to offer were Warcraft fans whining about the "biased" match pics and Ceej being against it and blah blah blah. Granted the Warcraft pics weren't the best, but Blizzard doesn't really make photogenic games.

One question though, for anyone reading this. Are those Grunt sprites really from Warcraft 2? Because I found this: <http://war2.warcraft.org/images/strategy/hopping/basics_rax2.jpg>

Those look nothing like what's in the match pic.

## Match Trends

## External Links

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## (3)Sonic the Hedgehog vs (2)Super Smash Bros. 2006

_source: (3)Sonic the Hedgehog vs (2)Super Smash Bros. 2006 (revid 56371)_

## Results

Sunday, July 23rd, 2006

## Ulti's Analysis

- **Division:** Mushroom Division Semi Final
- **Match \#:** 22
- **Match Date:** Sunday, July 23rd, 2006
- **Vote difference:** 19,332
- **Oracle Expectations:** Super Smash Bros. - 51.90% 87 for - 42 against
- **GameFAQs Prediction:** Super Smash Bros. - 46.03% (21,265 brackets)

Though SSB winning its first two matches was the big conclusion across Board 8 (SSBM is the board's favorite game, which is all you need to know about why SSB was favored by so much), one look at the prediction percentage would yield that the casual pick likely went with Sonic here. And given what this contest had shown us to this point, a Sonic \> SSB upset in the bracket wasn't too bad an upset special. In theory.

All the new or small series in this contest were tanking. All the established, OLD-SKOOL series with a lot of history and exposure across a billion consoles were doing better than expected, including the series that we all thought would do well. Seriously, 100,000 votes being broken individually multiple times?

Added to this was the fact that SSBM wasn't all that impressive in the games contest, and this match was essentially SSBM versus the entire Sonic series. It only beat MGS2 by 10000 votes, Vice City by 5000 and FFX by ~1500 before Starcraft got caught cheating against it. From there, it was 37% against FF7. Far better than most other games could hope to get, but still not overly impressive. All it really did was avoid a doubling at the hands of what may no longer be this site's strongest force.

There was one fact, however, that clearly favored SSB in the match:

- [gamefaqs.com/poll/index.html?poll=2362](http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/index.html?poll=2362)
- [gamefaqs.com/poll/index.html?poll=2373](http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/index.html?poll=2373)

The Brawl E3 trailer fell between those two polls, and red13n was seriously like the only person to notice. Regardless of how good Sonic looked going into this, the other small slash new series that tanked weren't Nintendo-based. And it showed come match time.

You know the rules. Any debated match that ends with a margin larger than 55-45 is an absolute and utter destruction by my standards. Sonic once again played the part of the goat in a winnable big match, which once again robbed us of seeing a Mario/Sonic clash. We were closer this year than any other of finally seeing those two go at it; Sonic winning this would have literally meant Mario v Sonic the following round.

But as it stood, Smash put a choke hold on Sonic that it would simply not relinquish from start to finish. The percentages barely moved in the match save for Sonic's day vote chipping away before Smash brought it back up again during the afternoon and night, but it was meaningless. The percentages you see above are essentially the essence of what this match was from start to finish -- the prototypical debated-match turned-killing-by-debated match-standards kind of blowout. Not too large on paper, but given what Sonic had going for it going in, this was nothing short of yet another disappointment for Sonic. And he has a long line of them in these contests. Only Knuckles has really done much, in retrospect.

Some argued that this match was our last chance to see something great. It would obviously end differently, but conjecture at the time wasn't too far off.

## Match Trends

## External Links

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## (1)Final Fantasy vs (4)Mega Man 2006

_source: (1)Final Fantasy vs (4)Mega Man 2006 (revid 88424)_

## Results

Monday, July 24th, 2006

## Ulti's Analysis

- **Division:** Ultima Division Semi Final
- **Match \#:** 23
- **Match Date:** Monday, July 24th, 2006
- **Vote difference:** 65,586
- **Oracle Expectations:** Final Fantasy - 74.99% 129 for - 1 against
- **GameFAQs Prediction:** Final Fantasy - 92.62% (42,789 brackets)

The most notable thing about FF/Mega Man was that the match picture was backwards. This was because in every Mega Man game, you're almost always going right. In every FF game, you're almost always on the right and looking left in fights. And when this is the most notable thing about a match, you know you have a boring blowout on your hands.

There was really nothing in this match to indicate that FF was in any trouble in the later rounds. It once again broke 100k votes despite getting killed by the board vote early, en route to yet another killing. And given that "Mega Man" is an all-inclusive name, FF scoring such a huge blowout here was all the more impressive. This contest was more or less FF's to lose after this match, assuming you put a lot of stock into total votes.

Fun Fact: During the match, transience made a joke topic saying that Zelda would win in the final due to Zelda doing better on MMX than FF did here on Mega Man. After all, SFF doesn't exist and MMX is obviously the stronger series!

Oh the irony.

## Match Trends

## External Links

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## (6)Street Fighter vs (2)Resident Evil 2006

_source: (6)Street Fighter vs (2)Resident Evil 2006 (revid 56375)_

## Results

Tuesday, July 25th, 2006

## Ulti's Analysis

- **Division:** Ultima Division Semi Final
- **Match \#:** 24
- **Match Date:** Tuesday, July 25th, 2006
- **Vote difference:** 1,779
- **Oracle Expectations:** Resident Evil - 57.28% 113 for - 17 against
- **GameFAQs Prediction:** Resident Evil - 55.80% (25,778 brackets)

And we finally get a match pic that puts Solid Shit to shame. What in the hell *is* that? Ryu and Akuma going to town on a couple of blobs? RE isn't a sprite-friendly series, it would seem....

On Board 8, the consensus pick was Resident Evil to win this match. The logic was that we had two Capcom series going at it; one featured a certain epitome of badass known as Resident Evil 4, while the other featured Street Fighter 2, the only game in the entire Street Fighter series that appeals to gamers outside of the snotty fighting game base. SF2 is also something like 15 years old. Given RE4's dominance in the 2005 GOTY polls and SF2 not even winning a single match in the games contest, recency effect caused everyone to pick RE to win. And why not? RE4 is better than any game in either series by about 7 miles.

The counterargument to this was that every gamer knows what Street Fighter 2 did for the industry, and the name Street Fighter has far more casual appeal than Resident Evil does. Add in the one-sided match picture, and you have the anatomy of an upset in the making. The only thing Street Fighter really needed to get around was Resident Evil 4, which even the biggest of SF supporters conceded.

But having the anatomy of an upset and having a close match are two different things, and we've seen the difference quite often. Street Fighter however went out and proved that it wasn't a dead series just yet. RE took a lead of 55% and 50 votes early, but Street Fighter made the match very respectable from this point on. RE slowly built a lead for itself, though SF was able to create a few comeback scares every now and then. For what it's worth, SF cut a 400 vote lead of RE's in half before the morning vote, and then cut the lead down a little more once said vote began. SF put itself in position to win, but couldn't quite close the deal after doing so. RE took the morning vote and ran with it en route to building a lead of nearly 2500 votes. SF did very well during the evening, but RE was too far in the lead for SF's late comeback attempt to matter. It was mere "let's make the match as respectable as possible" territory, and it worked.

Given that most expected RE to win this match with ease, SF impressing was obviously unexpected, but still understandable. It's very easy to assume that SF would have won this match is RE4 didn't exist, because the SFF would have likely gone the other way. It's also funny to remember that RE won this match while being on the ass end of the single worst match pic ever.

Its reward? A killing at the hands of FF. Yay!

## Match Trends

## External Links

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## (1)The Legend of Zelda vs (2)Metroid 2006

_source: (1)The Legend of Zelda vs (2)Metroid 2006 (revid 56377)_

## Results

Wednesday, July 26th, 2006

## Ulti's Analysis

- **Division:** Hyrule Division Final
- **Match \#:** 25
- **Match Date:** Wednesday, July 26th, 2006
- **Vote difference:** 93,414
- **Oracle Expectations:** The Legend of Zelda - 77.02% 123 for - 0 against
- **GameFAQs Prediction:** The Legend of Zelda - 89.78% (41,477 brackets)

This is seriously the easiest match in the entire contest to look into, because everyone knew it was coming -- especially after Metroid bombed against Pokémon in the previous round. I doubt most people expected the SFF to be this bad, but it wasn't a surprise regardless. Metroid fans are used to all things Samus bombing against Nintendo, as are all fans stuck having their favorite anything face Zelda in a contest.

So instead of ranting about how big the beating was, I offer two things. One, WTF CD-i Zelda and Tingle? Two, an updated list of links, in order, involving Samus performing badly and/or failing to get any SFF against Nintendo. I'm sure I'll wind up adding to this in future contests.

- <http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/index.html?poll=1312>
- <http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/index.html?poll=1361>
- <http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/index.html?poll=1633>
- <http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/index.html?poll=1639>
- <http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/index.html?poll=1646>
- <http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/index.html?poll=2115>
- <http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/index.html?poll=2122>
- <http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/index.html?poll=2442>
- <http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/index.html?poll=2449>

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## (1)Metal Gear vs (2)Kingdom Hearts 2006

_source: (1)Metal Gear vs (2)Kingdom Hearts 2006 (revid 56379)_

## Results

Thursday, July 27th, 2006

## Ulti's Analysis

- **Division:** Snake Division Final
- **Match \#:** 26
- **Match Date:** Thursday, July 27th, 2006
- **Vote difference:** 22,841
- **Oracle Expectations:** Metal Gear - 56.97% 118 for - 8 against
- **GameFAQs Prediction:** Metal Gear - 46.21% (21,348 brackets)

**(1) Metal Gear vs (3)Castlevania**

THE PLAN!

Actually, Kingdom Hearts was supposed to be in the match. It did beat CV fair and square, after all. But for whatever reason, Castlevania was the bottom option for the first minute or two of the poll. After one of the funniest board explosions of all time (Alucard's Plan had been a three year fad prior to this poll glitch, for those not in the know), CJayC didn't even bother restarting or making a topic. He just fixed the option to Kingdom Hearts and let things roll. So with that said, I'll do the same.

After the fix, things were pretty much boring the rest of the way. With Solid Snake v Sora a mere year old, we already had a blueprint for how this match would go: Metal Gear jumps out to a nice lead early, KH slashes a lot of percentage off during its killer day vote before ultimately losing with ease. The only difference between this match and Snake/Sora is that Snake/Sora came completely out of left field. Sora was trashed, to the point where his percentage recovery was something that no one gave a crap about. With KH, it was just a swing that everyone expected, but knew meant nothing. MG was going to win this match with ease regardless.

The only thing out of the ordinary about this match was the horrid prediction percentage. Apparently that pre-contest poll about the most likely 1 seed to fall early had an effect on people, because Halo really seemed like the consensus pick to win the division. As it would turn out however we saw four divisional finals of 1 \> 2.

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## (1)Super Mario Bros. vs (2)Super Smash Bros. 2006

_source: (1)Super Mario Bros. vs (2)Super Smash Bros. 2006 (revid 56381)_

## Results

Friday, July 28th, 2006

## Ulti's Analysis

- **Division:** Mushroom Division Final
- **Match \#:** 27
- **Match Date:** Friday, July 28th, 2006
- **Vote difference:** 29,147
- **Oracle Expectations:** Super Mario Bros. - 69.10% 122 for - 6 against
- **GameFAQs Prediction:** Super Mario Bros. - 62.89% (29,054 brackets)

Peach not getting into Mario's side of the match pic is a crime.

Anyway, WHAT an awesome performance by SSB here. Normally I call matches like this complete blowouts, but this one is different. With the exception of the few people that actually expected SSB to win this (equivalent to that one guy in every fantasy football league that misses the draft and sends some lackey with a half-ass list to draft for him, then whines about his team sucking the day after), most people expected Mario to flat-out kill SSB via the SFF bug. Smash almost breaking 40% is nothing short of a complete shock. Even funnier is that after the day vote when Mario was about to break 64.5%, Smash came back and sliced nearly 3% off of the percentage. It was clinic in how to avoid SFF by Smash if nothing else. Pre-contest, there were many debates about what the fourth strongest series would be. No one expected Smash to actually take that spot, especially after facing Mario in a match that many expected to be an 80-20 SFF killing. All talk of Mario perhaps upsetting FF pretty much died during this match.

But it's a testament to the fact that Smash may very well be the last casual appeal that Nintendo has in the gaming market. Nintendo's accepting the place of profitable third place and alienating third party developers (in large part due to said developers knowing that they can't compete with first party Nintendo titles on Nintendo systems, so they go elsewhere), not to mention the girly look of the Gamecube and the odd nature of the Gamecube controller has a lot of casual slash "jock" gamers going elsewhere for their needs.

With Smash however you rarely see it lumped into all of the complaints. I've heard every other major title on the Gamecube labeled as kiddy crap and/or flat-out horrendous by casuals, but not Smash. The worst thing people ever call Smash is a party fighting game, which says a lot about its staying power.

If this match were held pre-SSBM, we probably would have seen the 80-20 SFFing that everyone expected. But for whatever reason, the massive popularity of SSBM allowed SSB to resist this. Call it rSFF or whatever, but the proof is in the numbers. There is supposedly massive, near-linear overlap between the two series, yet SSB wasn't SFFd to hell. I credit this to SSBM being the last thing Nintendo has done that actually appeals to casuals (save Metroid Prime), but if you have any other reasons I'd love to hear them. I'm sure your guess is as good as mine.

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## (1)Final Fantasy vs (2)Resident Evil 2006

_source: (1)Final Fantasy vs (2)Resident Evil 2006 (revid 56383)_

## Results

Saturday, July 29th, 2006

## Ulti's Analysis

- **Division:** Ultima Division Final
- **Match \#:** 28
- **Match Date:** Saturday, July 29th, 2006
- **Vote difference:** 70,950
- **Oracle Expectations:** Final Fantasy - 77.21% 124 for - 0 against
- **GameFAQs Prediction:** Final Fantasy - 87.42% (40,386 brackets)

Resident Evil 4 could only take the RE franchise so far, it seemed. After a record-setting killing of Shadow Hearts and a win over fellow Capcom series Street Fighter, the only thing really left for RE was to job to Final Fantasy in the final match that would give off the illusion that FF was championship material.

RE did this quite well. After of course taking the board vote (which everything seems to do against FF, for some reason), RE began its expected decline. From there FF winning was a formality, but the one thing left of note would be to see whether or not Resident Evil would do better on FF than Mega Man, which would effectively put RE at \#1 in terms of Capcom series.

Yeah, that lasted all of one hour. RE fell below 25.81% after one hour, and never saw the percentage again in the match. FF's latest blowout meant that the Final Four everyone saw coming was intact: four 1 \> 2 matches, which I think had never happened before this contest.

Oddly enough, the Final Four would wind up being far less predictable than everyone had originally thought.

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## (1)The Legend of Zelda vs (1)Metal Gear 2006

_source: (1)The Legend of Zelda vs (1)Metal Gear 2006 (revid 56385)_

## Results

Sunday, July 30th, 2006

## Ulti's Analysis

- **Division:** Tournament Semi Final
- **Match \#:** 29
- **Match Date:** Sunday, July 30th, 2006
- **Vote difference:** 62,856
- **Oracle Expectations:** The Legend of Zelda - 70.11% 114 for - 0 against
- **GameFAQs Prediction:** The Legend of Zelda - 75.72% (34,981 brackets)

I have to say that the match pic theme for this Final Four was genius. I thought it was crap at first, but then I saw the years on the picture. Very nice touch by Ceej.

This match is also pretty funny, now that I look back on it. There were two days left in this contest, and there were literally no signs of the pending shock upset we were two days from seeing. Sure Zelda performed to insane proportions to this point of the contest, but so did Final Fantasy. And though Zelda coming out and beating the hell out of Metal Gear was something everyone knew was coming, it wasn't the TOTAL killing that we had grown accustomed to seeing from Zelda in this contest.

Before Metal Gear came along, no series had even broken 20% on Zelda. Even more odd was that Zelda's percentage didn't really move much throughout the match. At the first freeze, it had 72.78%. At the final freeze, 73.74%. You'd expect more from the king of the day vote. I realize that Metroid and MMX saw virtually no movement, but those were probably SFF matches.

In the end, Zelda was left with an easy path to the final and an inevitable clash with Final Fantasy as the underdog. Zelda winning wouldn't have surprised anyone, but Final Fantasy was still the clear favorite for obvious reasons. Final Fantasy 7 + other FFs contributing to FF's strength meant an uphill climb for Zelda. Supposedly.

Oddly enough, the result of the final was essentially locked in before it ever happened, thanks to the insane performance Mario would put on in the other half of the Final Four.

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## (1)Super Mario Bros. vs (1)Final Fantasy 2006

_source: (1)Super Mario Bros. vs (1)Final Fantasy 2006 (revid 56387)_

## Results

Monday, July 31st, 2006

## Ulti's Analysis

- **Division:** Tournament Semi Final
- **Match \#:** 30
- **Match Date:** Monday, July 31st, 2006
- **Vote difference:** 10,221
- **Oracle Expectations:** Final Fantasy - 59.37% 113 for - 1 against
- **GameFAQs Prediction:** Final Fantasy - 62.64% (28,938 brackets)

Don't let the final result of this match fool you; this contest was done and over one hour into the Final Four match precluding the Zelda/FF final.

It's not even the fact that Mario did well, either. Mario did well following a *damn-near collapse* against Super Smash Brothers. All talk of Mario pulling off a miracle died during that match. Three days later, "WTF, Mario isn't SFFing Smash?" turned into whining about Final Fantasy actually winning. It was that drastic a turnaround. And why wouldn't it have been? People were itching like mad for a huge upset in this contest, and had Mario actually pulled this off, all of the 18 or so perfects would have fallen.

Early in the match, Mario took the board vote. This was expected, because \*\*\*\*in' everything takes the board vote against Final Fantasy in these things. I'll never understand it. The catch is that this wasn't any normal board vote. Mario jumped ahead by 250 after 15 minutes; even if this was solely an anti-FF board vote, a lead that large for that long meant far more than CATS leading Cloud for a few seconds. Mario was making a serious run at actually winning the match, which is something that very few people took seriously pre-contest. Hell if anyone mentioned the possibility of Final Fantasy not winning this contest in the stats topic, the standard wave of elitist snobs were more than quick to shoot said posts down. Because really, Mario and Zelda had little chance of taking down the "OMG most powerful force we've ever seen in a contest!1". Because really, a year-old match between Mario and Sephiroth was 100% indicative of how a match between the two series of the characters would go after a massive influx of vote totals. Because really, Mario the series scoring 46.76% against Sephiroth and everything else in the FF series, one year after Mario the character scored 43.93% on Sephiroth himself I might add, didn't spell utter doom for Final Fantasy in the next round. Mario the series scoring higher on FF than Mario did on Sephy kind of made the final obvious to me, but what do I know. I, along with everyone else that saw the inevitable of tomorrow, had to sit through 24 hours' worth of Final Fantasy supporters clamoring complete nonsense about how Mario and Zelda are equal enough in strength pre-SFF for FF to win in the final.

People seriously will spout anything to defend their bracket, I swear.

It's actually funny. Final Fantasy saw Mario's 260 vote lead and cute struggle to hold it, then went berserk during the day vote to win by over 10000 votes. And it mattered not, because Final Fantasy had zero chance to win this contest after that first hour. If Mario (a series that hasn't proven itself to be in FF's league ever since Mario/Cloud in 2002) could pull that off, what damage would Zelda be capable of?

Even funnier is that the various scoring records set in this match would last one day. *One*.

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## (1)The Legend of Zelda vs (1)Final Fantasy 2006

_source: (1)The Legend of Zelda vs (1)Final Fantasy 2006 (revid 56389)_

## Results

Tuesday, August 1st, 2006

## Ulti's Analysis

- **Division:** Tournament Final
- **Match \#:** 31
- **Match Date:** Tuesday, August 1st, 2006
- **Vote difference:** 3,123
- **Oracle Expectations:** The Legend of Zelda - 51.05% 66 for - 49 against
- **GameFAQs Prediction:** The Legend of Zelda - 35.66% (16,474 brackets)

Yay user submitted pics. There's always one or two real gems whenever these come up, and getting to see Dark Knight Cecil = win.

And for the second match in a row, the final score doesn't do the match justice at all. At a glance, you see a tough 3000 vote win for Zelda. In reality, look at what Zelda was up against for a moment.

The mentality here was that the combined strength of the Final Fantasy franchise would be too much for Zelda to handle. And it was a good theory, because FF7 demolished OOT in 2004. Even if you add all the Zelda games together, would Zelda even beat FF7? Would Link beat FF7? After all, everyone knows that Link is a complete and valid proxy for the entire Zelda series and his contest strength in character battles was a perfect indicative of how Zelda would do against Final Fantasy --- see also: "not well".

But no one thought to consider the opposite point of view --- that is, Final Fantasy 7 being a complete and valid proxy for the full force of the Final Fantasy series. I made a point pre-contest, and it was of course passed off. It's a good time to bring it back up. Not an exact wording, but it's close enough:

"Let's assume that Link actually is a proxy for the Zelda series for a moment, and that Zelda fans are every bit as diverse as FF fans. Looking into the strength of the games, you get a closer match than everyone thinks.

- Zelda 1 \> Final Fantasy with ~56.5%
- LTTP \> FF6 with 52.66%
- FF7 \> OOT with 53.82%

Starcraft royally screwed up the D128 stats, so we'll just call WW and FFX even. FF8 and MM are both black sheep in the two series, so we have no real reading on either.

This essentially leaves us with FF7 being the only thing in the Final Fantasy series that is reliably stronger than its Zelda counterpart. All the other Zelda games being equal to and/or stronger than their counterparts can't help make up the difference? Link being a complete beast and being a combined 5-1 against Cloud and Sephiroth can't help make up the difference? The massive and ongoing Nintendo boost since the Twilight Princess announcement can't help make up the difference?

Plug in Summer 2005 Link against Final Fantasy 7 in the Xst Calculator, just for kicks. FF7 only wins with 50.4% of the vote. All of the other, non-FF7 factors favoring Zelda can't allow Zelda to pull off the upset here? Frankly, Zelda has an excellent chance to win this. All FF has going for it is FF7, because the added boost from the other games is shaky if Zelda gets any boost at all from its non-OOT games as well.

I'm sticking with FF in my bracket, but I won't be surprised at all if Zelda wins."

This was a great debate before Mario/FF, but the match was a mere formality once FF showed any sign of weakness. The "Zelda might be close to Mario in strength before SFF" logic was wishful thinking at best, plus all of the Nintendo fans were just pissed as hell once Mario went down. The second Mario/FF ended, it's like the entirety of Nintendo decided to try and crush FF all at the same time.

And frankly, it worked. Within the first two and a half hours of the poll, Zelda jumped out to a 2200 vote lead with minimal resistance. It's kind of a shame that we have so many Link/Cloud matches to draw trends from, because the FF comeback attempt that happened after this would have actually meant something. As it stood, FF using the night vote to cut that 2200 vote lead down to 1400 meant nothing. It's like when you're dating a really hot girl that you know is cheating on you. You know it's over, but you let it ride out as long as possible anyway just because she's hot. And FF strung this thing out for a long time. Its comeback/stall effort lasted all the way until 8 a.m., well past the time when Link began laying waste to Cloud so many times prior. But everyone knew what was coming.

Zelda used its historically beastly day vote to lay Final Fantasy to waste and clinch arguably the biggest contest upset since Cloud \> Link in 2003. Its lead grew to 3800 before the evening vote kicked in and allowed FF to make the match a bit more respectable. FF cut that 3800 vote lead down to 3200. Ceej was even nice enough to count the votes from the poll closing glitch that extended the poll five minutes. That extra five minutes actually allowed FF to break 49%.

But like Magus a year ago, a push to make the match respectable doesn't stick with anyone. FF was the overwhelming favorite. It was the obvious favorite. It was supposed to crush this contest with ease, much like Sephiroth in the villain's contest. But it choked. Hard. Welcome to the final transition to NintendoFAQs, folks. The summer of 2003 when Nintendo and Square were even seems like such a long time ago...

But unlike Square's gradual decline, Nintendo has no reason to lose strength on GameFAQs for a long time. Not with the Wii as anticipated as it is and Sony and Square doing everything in their power to screw themselves over. We might be seeing NintendoFAQs for quite a while.

As a final note on the final, the total votes and FF's votes in a loss are records that may never be broken. Then again I said this after Link/Cloud 2003, and we saw how that turned out.

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